Memorandum of Understanding between Barisan Nasional and Hindraf – Part 1

Much has been said about the signing of the MOU, and a lot of what was said has been in the realm of conjecture as well as emotional reactions to the signing. Hindraf finds the reactions understandable, though it does not share them, which should be just as understandable to the reader.

Hindraf Economic Unit

This is the first of a series of articles which will be released heading up to the Polling day and beyond. The articles are targeted towards Malaysians in general and Indian Malaysians specifically.

The main purpose of these articles will be to set a standard of reference for what needs to be done to uplift the Indian poor. Along the way, the articles will also try to give Hindraf’s perspective on why the MOU has been chosen as the way forward.

Much has been said about the signing of the MOU, and a lot of what was said has been in the realm of conjecture as well as emotional reactions to the signing. Hindraf finds the reactions understandable, though it does not share them, which should be just as understandable to the reader.

Indians make up 7.3% of Malaysia’s population according to the Department of Statistics.

We all know that except in crime statistics, Indian Malaysian do not have a 7.3% share of any cake in this country, be it as a part of the annual budget for education, or job opportunities or business licenses.

If the fact that Indian Malaysians are usually allocated about 1% of the total annual education budget (excluding higher learning) seems fair to you, then read no further. But if it seems a tad unfair, then ask yourself this question: How can this be challenged, and changed?

The same applies to all areas where the Indian Malaysian citizen has been excluded from, or has been deprived of.

How can this unfair state of affairs be challenged, and changed?

This does not only apply to the areas which fall under the control of the federal and state governments, but also in the private sector. As a quick exercise, imagine yourself to be an Indian Malaysian youth, of between 19 to 22 years of age, who is looking for some suitable part time or temporary employment. Now go to a popular job site like asiaparttime.com and see for yourself what percentage of the hundred odd new jobs advertised on that site daily will even accept an application from an Indian Malaysian like you.

The only area where an Indian Malaysian is automatically an equal to any other citizen in this country is when it is time to vote. An Indian vote is counted as one, just as a Malay or a Chinese vote is.

And it is from that position of equality, namely the vote, that Hindraf challenges and changes what is wrong, to what is right.

Now, some of you may say that it is the individual that determines his or her success in life, and not the circumstances that surround the individual’s particular race.

To this, we ask you to do another simple mental exercise. Give away all your possessions, empty your bank accounts and liquidate your investments, sell your properties and start from zero. But before you start, also burn your birth certificate and diplomas and degrees, destroy your passport and mykad and driving license. Once you are standing there with no document which identifies you as so and so, with no money or wealth, with no right to apply for a bank account or a driving license, to make a police report when someone assaults you and leaves you for dead, no means to obtain medical care in even a government clinic, no right to marry or have children, unless you want your children to share your fate, no way to enroll in school or apply for a job, with no right to property or security.

Once you stand there just like a stateless Indian Malaysian does, please show us how you will achieve everything you have achieved so far in life.

Even Einstein would have become a beggar, if he had been born as a stateless Indian Malaysian in this country.

This brings us to the first point from the MOU which we will address.

Statelessness among the Malaysian Indian poor shall be addressed by the following programs:

i) Identify all Stateless ethnic Indians as ethnic Indians without Birth Certificates and Blue Identification cards and those with Red Identity Cards.

ii) Develop Common Sense and transparent proposals to address the problems of Malaysian Indians who claim to have been born and raised in Malaysia but who do not have any documentary evidence whatsoever of their birth and residency.

iii) Develop policies including those that may allow defined local persons of repute who are given official standing to issue Statutory Declarations conveying their opinion that a said stateless person was indeed born and raised in their locality in Malaysia.

iv) Develop streamlined and transparent policies to resolve the large problem of all persons who only hold Red Identification Cards.

v) Differentiate a system that can differentiate legitimate from non-legitimate citizenship applications from ethnic Indians in Malaysia.

vi) Ensure that the common sense and transparent proposals developed should strictly adhere to the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Point number three simply means this. A retired headmaster, or some other figure of local repute, can make a Statutory Declaration, which can lead to the stateless Indian Malaysian being released from the nightmare that is his nameless condition.

Now, we issue a real challenge to the reader who believes that Pakatan Rakyat is the salvation for Malaysia. Can you guarantee that Pakatan will at least match the criteria listed above, and eradicate the problem of the stateless Indian Malaysian once and for all?

We in Hindraf are not interested in your curses or your personal attacks. The people that lead and make up Hindraf are fighters, and we will take full responsibility to hold Barisan Nasional to what has been agreed in the MOU. What we are interested in is whether all of you who believe that there exists both the political will and moral backbone within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to address the question of statelessness among the Indian Malaysian, to hold Pakatan Rakyat to the same standards by which we in Hindraf now hold Barisan Nasional.

If you cannot see the pragmatism that is the basis for the question above, then let it be forever beyond you. But if you understand the import, are you then prepared to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that Pakatan does what is right? If your answer is no, then please find other matters to occupy you, and leave the task of bringing the Indian poor to the mainstream development of Malaysia, to those that can.